Reviews? VinnyVideo? Do those words still coexist in this brave new world?

Once upon a time, I used to be quite a prolific reviewer of review-y things on the MFGG mainsite! I've been sadly neglectful of my reviewing career (a career that has yet to earn me fame, fortune, and enduring romance) over the past few years. However, since I just launched a new Review Drive to encourage reviews, I thought it would only be right to chip in with a review of my own!

Pros

+ Nice graphics+ Fun use of music+ Some fun gameplay mechanics, including "don't collect the coins"+ It's a Charisma Bros. game, complete with Charisma Bros. humor+ One of the most polished Charisma games

Cons

- In the bee level, it's possible to fall off the edge of the screen, forcing you to restart the game- More of an experience than a game (which may or may not qualify as a con)

Impressions

Gameplay7 / 10

Endless Charisma is an interlude in Vitiman's long-running Charisma Bros. series. These games chronicle the zany adventures and the equally-zany misadventures of Dudim, Miles, StrikeForcer, and other colorful characters who populate everyone's favorite fangaming galaxy. At the beginning of this episode, Dudim has been drifting through outer space for the past three years - but this soon changes after Dudim is slammed by a giant Sega logo!

As in other Charisma games, Endless Charisma makes heavy use of cutscenes to tell the game's story. You could say that Charisma uses video games as a medium to tell a story. It may be a convoluted or downright nonsensical story, but the story is a big part of the game's appeal. While gameplay takes a back seat to story in Endless Charisma there still is gameplay. In particular, there's a level that takes the "collect all the coins" mechanic and promptly makes it stand on its head. It's always fun to see games that subvert video game tropes in creative ways.

Graphics7 / 10

It's a funny game where the developer clearly put effort into making the graphics look nice - which is refreshing to see, since many MFGG joke games aren't exactly... beautiful. The graphics are zany but manage to look good together. Quisciens did a great job on the original sprites, and some of the special effects are also quite enjoyable.

Sound8 / 10

Endless Charisma uses an eclectic soundtrack, ranging from the Yoshi's Island Flower Garden music to obscure foreign music to Vitiman's a cappella rendition of the Super Mario Bros. 2 overworld music! The music made me smile.

Replay7 / 10

As typical of the Charisma series, Endless Charisma boasts surprisingly good replay value. It's not a very long game, and there aren't a lot of mechanics like a high scores system or multiplayer to increase replay value. However, I find that whenever I revisit old Charisma games, I have fun, and that's what counts in a game like this.